EVENT PREVIEW: NYC Hot Sauce Expo

Hot sauce and spicy food fanatics prepare yourselves, because the second annual Hot Sauce Expo is back to tantalize your taste buds once again. Hitting NYC for two days the weekend of March 29th, the expo will feature samples of hot sauce from over 45 vendors, food competitions, and plenty of drinks to help ease the taste of the many sauces to be tried.

While last year the Williamsburg waterfront was the expo’s home, this year it makes the jump to Penn Plaza, making room for the many eating contests taking place throughout the weekend. For those who believe they can take the heat, the contests throughout the weekend are set to challenge even the most experienced palettes with eating, drinking, and straight pepper-eating contests. Saturday kicks off with the Chicken Wing Eating contest, followed by a Lollipop Lick-AThon and Spicy Pizza Eating Contest. Sunday brings the Spicy Knish Eating Contest, the Bloody Mary Mix Down Championship and the Reaper Pepper Guinness Book of Records Eating Contest. Those willing(and crazy enough) to attempt to eat the pepper that has been named the hottest in the world, they have a chance to go down in history and into the World Record books in this challenge.

The highlight of the weekend will be the announcement of the Screaming Mi Mi Awards, which names the best hot sauce in thirteen different categories. To be considered, companies must enter their sauce into the competition ahead of time through the expo’s site. The winners will all be crowned on Saturday and be awarded the ubiquitous Screaming Mi Mi Award in their respective category.

With samples of hot sauce from around the country all featured in one place, the Expo is sure to be non-stop weekend of heat, exciting eating challenges and maybe a world record or two.